1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to foreign remittance transaction terminal apparatus used for conducting foreign remittance business and also to a foreign remittance transaction system employing the foreign remittance transaction terminal apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to foreign remittance transaction terminal apparatus capable of automatically preparing an application form for remittance required to apply to a financial institution for foreign remittance. The present invention also relates to a foreign remittance transaction system employing the foreign remittance transaction terminal apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the recent internationalization of societies, the number of applications for foreign remittance made per year has reached several hundreds of thousands. Since sending of money to foreign countries can be performed only by financial institutions qualified to transact foreign remittance business, there has been a demand for a system capable of efficiently transacting foreign remittances increasing in number.
FIG. 1 shows the arrangement of a conventional foreign remittance transaction system, and FIG. 2 illustrates an application form for foreign remittance. Hitherto, a customer who applies to a financial institution for foreign remittance fills out an application form for foreign remittance as shown in FIG. 2 using the alphabet and hands a teller the money to be sent, together with the application form. As shown in FIG. 2, the application form for foreign remittance has about 20 entries, starting with "KIND OF REMITTANCE". That is, the application form for foreign remittance has, in addition to 12 entries common to domestic and foreign remittances, such entries as "KIND OF REMITTANCE", "SETTLEMENT METHOD", "PAYING BANKS CHARGES", "BENEFICIARYS COUNTRY", "PURPOSE", etc. Thus, the number of entries is approximately double the number of entries to be made for domestic remittance.
The application form for foreign remittance filled out by the sender is then checked by a teller for the presence of an error in the contents. For example, it is checked whether or not the designated branch of the beneficiary's bank actually exists, whether or not the designated currency in which the remittance is to be made can be accepted by the branch of the beneficiary's bank, and whether or not it is possible to make remittance in the amount and currency as requested to the beneficiary's country. Then, the teller calculates remittance charges from basic charges, predetermined charges for the amount of remittance, and exchange charges according to the kind of currency.
Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 1, the teller inputs the remittance data written on the application form by counter terminal equipment 100 and transmits it to a host computer 101. The host computer 101 transmits the remittance data to a beneficiary's bank 102 designated by the remittance data, thereby transacting foreign remittance.
In many cases of such foreign remittance, the customer usually sends money to the same beneficiary every 1 to 3 months. With the prior art, when the sender applies for foreign remittance again to the same beneficiary, he or she must fill out an application form for foreign remittance with the same items as those of the application form for the remittance previously made. Thus, the customer must fill out an application form with the same contents every time foreign remittance is to be made, and hence the teller inevitably needs a great deal of time to guide the customer in his/her writing remittance items on an application form and to check them. In particular, an application form for foreign remittance has a number of entries double that of an application form for domestic remittance, and hence a great deal of time is needed to write remittance items and to check them.
In addition, since many of senders are foreigners, application forms themselves must be made understandable in many languages. The application form for foreign remittance as shown in FIG. 2 has thereon various items written in both Japanese and English but cannot cope with Spanish or other languages.
Furthermore, in order to transmit the remittance data written on the application form to the beneficiary's bank, it is necessary for the teller to input all the data by a manual operation, which loads him/her heavily.
Moreover, the teller must check each item on the application form filled out by the sender. This checking operation takes a great deal of time and labor. In addition, it is necessary to calculate remittance charges, which also requires a great deal of time and labor. For these reasons, tellers who can handle foreign remittance are limited to those experienced, and it is difficult to cope with the increase in the number of applications for foreign remittance.